1846. J On the Management of Pigs. 313 



that it be properly stored; and at the risk of lengthening out a 

 letter which has already grown too long, I beg to mention a me- 

 thod which I adopted last year with a diseased crop, on a consi- 

 derable scale, and with perfect success. A headland of the potato 

 field was selected, to which the potatoes were carted as they were 

 taken from the ground; they were there piled up to a point be- 

 ginning with a base of 3 feet in width, then carefully thatched 

 over with drawn straw to a depth of 6 inches. A small diain 

 about 6 inches deep was then dug along the entire length of 

 both sides of the pit, into w^hich the rain water from the thatch 

 fell, and was by it carried away. For about three weeks after 

 the pit was made the thatch was opened at intervals of three 

 yards all along the sunny side of the pit, on fine days, and these 

 openings were carefully closed again before night. On the ap- 

 pearance of frost the whole side of the pit most exposed to the 

 influence of frost wind received a further covering of about six 

 inches more thatch. This, during the last mild season, was a 

 sufficient protection. Early in the spring when the whole pit 

 was overhauled, the potatoes were in excellent preservation; the 

 diseased ones very dry and firm, and the sound, to the eye, per- 

 fectly so; while there was not beyond the average of former 

 years of completely rotten potatoes. This crop was raised from 

 stiff" coarse land, taken up in dropping weather, necessai ily with 

 much moist clay adhering to the tubers, it was pitted as it came 

 from the ground without picking or selection, and after being pit- 

 ted in the manner already mentioned, nothing farther was done 

 till spring. In this manner I kept with safety from 200 to 300 

 tons of potatoes. — Agricultural Gazette. 



ON THE MANAGEMENT OF PIGS. 



There is probably no animal so much libelled, so unjustly de- 

 nounced as filthy, so preposterously accused of what he is not 

 guilty of as the pig. To say " as drunk as a pig," is an unde- 

 served stigma upon his character for temperance. Is there alco- 

 hol left in the brewer's grains after the smallest of the small, the 

 table and the lamen-table have been extracted therefrom ? As 

 to his proverbial dirtiness, look into his stye and see if his habits 

 of cleanliness are not of a superior order to those of most other 

 domestic animals. To be as " stupid," as " ignorant," &c., is 

 contradicted by the fact that a considerable number are regularly 

 perambulating the provinces in caravans as learned professors for 

 enlightening the country " raws" at fairs. 



No. VIIL 11 



